New Adventist Video Series Features Freestyle Soccer World Champion

Freestyle football world champion and three-time Guiness World Record holder Aguska Mnich is one of the faces of a new TV series produced by Adventist TV network Hope Media Europe.*

The My Greatest Victory documentary series includes episodes featuring people who have made a difference in the world of sports while openly acknowledging they are Christians and sharing what Jesus has done in their personal lives and careers. Together with My Greatest Decision and My Greatest Venture, the new series is part of My Greatest Purpose, the latest cross-media production of Germany-based Hope Media Europe in partnership with the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Trans-European Division (TED) and Inter-European Division (EUD).

On November 16, attendees at the 2024 Global Adventist Internet Network (GAiN) Europe Conference in Budva, Montenegro, saw the premiere of the episode featuring Mnich and her husband, Patrick Bäurer, also a freestyle soccer expert.

“Freestyle football, rooted in the rich tradition of street football, emerged as an artistic expression of ball control and creativity,” the video episode explains. While rooted in the skills of soccer legends and street performers, “it evolved from a niche pastime to a global phenomenon.” The now competitive sport requires juggling a soccer ball using any part of the body, excluding elbows and hands, in the most creative way as competitors try to outdo their opponents.

After the episode screening and to the surprise of many, series producer Adrian Dure called Mnich and Bäurer to the GAiN stage, where Mnich shared a testimony about what Jesus means to her and how she makes the most of her position to witness to others about him.

“The series includes Olympians,” Dure said as he explained the stories in the series. “Basically, all the people featured reflect on what constitutes, for them, life’s purpose.”

Multiple World Champion

The first episode of the My Greatest Victory series — the life story of Mnich and the role of Jesus in her life — is already available for viewing. In it, Mnich shares how finding Jesus helped her to leave harmful practices like drinking alcohol and hanging out with the wrong crowd.

Mnich also tells how being a freestyle football world champion helped her to find a forum where she can freely share her life experience and her Christian faith. “I want to share it, because God has changed my life, [and] He can change people’s lives; I need to let them know.”

She designs her own outfits, which include colorful T-shirts with phrases such as “Connect with God,” “Life with Jesus Is Better,” and “All I need is Jesus.” In the past few years, Mnich has become a social influencer with more than 10 million followers, allowing her to share widely her testimony of how God made a difference in her life. “I want to share … that God is alive, and [that] if He [could] change my life, He can change your life too,” Mnich emphasizes.

Being in love with Jesus, however, is not a substitute for hard work, Mnich explains. “People say, ‘You are talented, and you’re gifted,’ but they don’t see the hard work we have to put in every day,” she said. She shared how she before a competition, she cries during her training and often is dissatisfied with her performance. “But every time I finish … I have peace in my heart, [as if] God is telling me, ‘It’s good; you’re going to be all right.’ ”

At the same time, Mnich shared, a life with Jesus hasn’t spared her the challenges of living in this world, including the initial lack of support of her family, financial challenges, and sport defeats. But in all, she said, God has sustained her. Today, she enjoys a close a relationship with her family, serving as an inspiration for other young people struggling with their family relations. “I want to inspire [people] to one day also change, for what they saw, for what they heard,” she said.

Multiyear Projects across the World

My Greatest Purpose is the latest initiative of cross-media projects coordinated by Hope Media Europe, with the support of the TED and the EUD of the Adventist Church. Since 2017, the media ministry’s annual or biannual projects have enlisted Adventist filmmakers, authors, and other creatives to reflect on various topics that appeal to all audiences, even in a post-Christian secular environment.

The 2017 Rest production was followed by This Is My Mission (2017-2018), Fathers (2018-2019), Uncertainty (2019-2021), and 700 Years of Happiness (2021-2022).

Overall, these initiatives have resulted in about 900 minutes of documentaries with participation from people in more than 44 countries and translation to almost 20 languages. They also include three narrative films, approximately 65 minutes of clips, and short stories for social media with participants from 30 countries, along with several books with dozens of contributors from around the world.

The 2023-2024 project, My Greatest Purpose, is based on the notion that one’s purpose in life “is not just about what you achieve, but the lives you touch and the change you inspire,” Dure said. “Our life purpose can be a powerful agent of change, guiding our values, decisions, and actions to create meaningful impact on the world.”

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* When the series episode was filmed, Mnich was five-time world champion. She recently was crowned for a record sixth time.